Religious Problem in India

Author(s): Annie Besant
Publisher: Theosophist Office Adyar

Page 51

JAINISM
43
would seem from the account given, He had intended to take birth; but Indra, the King of the Devas, seeing the coming of the Jina, said that it was not right that He should be born among the Brahmaņas, for ever the Jina was a Kshaṭṭriya and in a royal house must He be born. So Indra sent one of the Devas to guide the birth of the Jina to the family of King Siddhartha, in which he was finally born. His birth was surrounded by those signs of joy and delight that ever herald the coming of one of the great Prophets of the race--the songs of the Devas, the music of Gandharvas, the scattering of flowers from heaven-these are ever the accompaniments of the birth of one of the Saviors of the world. And the child is born amid these rejoicings, and since, after His conception in the family the family had increased in wealth, in power, in prosperity, they named him Vardhamana-the Increaser of the prosperity of his family. He grew up as a boy, as a youth, loving and dutiful to His parents; but ever in His heart the vow that He had taken, long lives before, to renounce all, to reach illumination, to become a Savior of the world. He waits until father and mother are dead, so that He may not grieve their hearts by the leaving; and then, taking the permission of His elder brother and the royal councillors, He goes forth surrounded by crowds of people to adopt the ascetic life. He reaches the jungle; He pulls off his robes, the royal robes and royal ornaments; He tears out his hair; He puts on the garment of the ascetic; He sends away the royal pro